State approves electronic voting for Napa's Nov. election
Wednesday, July 7, 2004

By CHRIS TRIBBEY
Register City Editor

Napa County's electronic voting system was recertified Tuesday by California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, ending months of speculation about whether the technology would be available for the November election.

"We are pleased that Napa County officials have agreed to comply with the recertification conditions," said Secretary of State Kevin Shelley in a press release.

Those conditions were a sticking point with Napa County Registrar of Voters John Tuteur, until a federal judge ruled July 2 that Shelley was within his rights to shut down electronic voting systems in 10 California counties until certain conditions were met.

Tuteur was not available for comment Tuesday.

Those conditions include offering voters the option of casting a paper ballot; making available for independent analysis the voting system's computer source code; barring telephone, wireless or Internet connections on voting machines; and training poll workers extensively in the use of the machines. The county must also supply a paper receipt for those who vote electronically, something the state has already mandated for all electronic voting machines by 2006.

Tuteur requested the machines be recertified in a letter to Shelley last week, saying, "We understand that our vendor, Sequoia Voting Systems, has met all vendor requirements for recertification."

Sequoia, per Shelley's late-April mandate, will be required to foot the bill for the extra paper ballots and training. Tuteur has repeatedly defended the machines from the Oakland-based company as accurate.

Santa Clara, Tehama, Merced, Orange and Shasta counties had their touch screen voting systems recertified in June. Four other counties have yet to meet Shelley's requirements.

Solano, San Diego, San Joaquin and Kern counties which had used Diebold electronic voting machines in the March election were banned from using electronic voting machines for the November election.

Diebold machines, many of which were used for the first time in March, raised concerns over security and reliability.